George Angus, Tumblemoose Writer

Constructive criticism can help new writers succeed

I am completely tickled to be offering this guest post from Sharon at Get Paid To Write Online.  I’ve known her pretty much since I started blogging.  Her advice is solid – always.  Also, she has the years of doing this.  Sit back and enjoy!

Once you’ve been freelancing for a while you may find yourself having to outsource to someone less experienced because you’ve got too much work to handle. But how do you ensure that you get the work you expect so that outsourcing saves you time instead of wasting it?

I discovered the other day that some new writers can be intimidated by an experienced writer’s ability. This can create even more work for the experienced writer and doesn’t help the new writer at all. Here’s how I approach outsourcing to put people at ease and get the best from them.

Rule number one — you don’t have to know everything

When you outsource work the people who are doing the job will see the examples that you give them and might feel that you expect them to produce this quality of work straight away. I usually tell them how I found the experience of doing that job for the first time, complete with the challenges and the errors I made. I let them know that it’s okay to be unsure and to make mistakes provided that they follow rule number two.

Rule number two — ask for help early

I like to make myself available so that new writers can ask questions about the job as soon as they run into difficulty. Think of it this way: there is no point in letting someone do 20 articles wrong when a bit of advice after article number one could make the other 19 flow smoothly.

Sometimes people can be shy of asking for help. One of my colleagues said that I was so “scarily competent” that she hesitated to bother me with concerns that I might think trivial. I explained that I would rather she asked questions upfront rather than sink into a morass of uncertainty. To make things clearer, I sat with her and showed her exactly how I worked through a writing job from start to finish.

Rule number three — clarify the brief

This rule applies to both the person outsourcing and the person doing the work. Some briefs include hidden guidelines. If you have been working for a client for a while then you may have refined the original brief over time, but there may be no coherent record of the changes. When outsourcing it is your job to pass on the revised and amplified brief to the writer otherwise you just won’t get what you want. The writer needs to make sure that everything in the brief is clear and to ask questions (see rule number two) if it is not.

Rule number four — constructive feedback

Always remember that your goal is to have another trusted writer to whom you can subcontract. At the start of a new job it is important to give regular and constructive feedback to help that writer to meet your expectations. Giving constructive feedback is not simply pointing out the flaws; it is about pointing out what is right and showing how to improve the rest. This can be quite time consuming at a time when you are already overwhelmed with writing work but it’s the only way to get the result you need. I usually explain to writers that although there may be a lot of changes at first, this is normal and over time it will get easier.

For me subcontracting and outsourcing have gone hand-in-hand with mentoring. I’ve worked with a lot of writers in the last five years and I am pleased to say that many of them have “graduated” to running their own writing businesses. What are your rules when outsourcing writing work?

Sharon Hurley Hall is a web content writer and blogger. She blogs at Get Paid to Write Online.